HB 4011 – Traffic Infraction Detectors, a bill that would ban red light cameras in the State of Florida recently passed the Economic Affairs Committee and is now moving to the Appropriations Committee. The bill is not yet on their schedule, but don’t let that stop you from encouraging the Representatives below to support HB 4011. Local Representative Ed Hooper, whom voted Nay on the Bill in the Economic Affairs Committee will vote again on the bill. Hooper received donations from ATS.

Update #5 –3/4/13: Two more bills have been filed to fix problems with Red Light Cameras, SB 1342 and HB 1061. The two new bills would not repeal red light cameras from the State of Florida but instead would make it easier for drivers to contest the tickets and ban tickets for turning right on red. State Senator Jeff Brandes, chairman of the Transportation Committee, said “I’d want full repeal, but that may not be available because we might have to buy out the contracts.” The Tenth Amendment Center has a full breakdown of the new bills here.

Update #4 – 2/28/13: The City of St. Petersburg has issued a moratorium on issuing red light camera tickets. As we learn more we will update here. Fox Update: “Clarification: St. Pete will still issue red light tickets; moratorium is for the ones challenged by people who say they weren’t driving.”

Update #3 – 2/26/13:Ken Burke of the Pinellas County Clerk of Courts has asked St. Petersburg and other cities to stop issuing red light camera citations. Mr. Burke posted an Open Letter on the Clerk of Court’s website listing the flaws and explaining why cities should stop the citations. We encourage you to contact Mr. Burke and thank him for his support, e-mail or call (727) 464-3341.

Update #2 – 2/18/13: Additional resources and links have been added to assist constituents in researching and writing their Representatives. We have also added the e-mail addresses for the Representatives for those that do not like the Web Forms. We say, use both!

Few people are aware of this, but the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) changed their rules on how long yellow intervals must be in July 2011. The newer rules allow cities to deliberately and maliciously set yellows too short for the ACTUAL approach speeds of at least 85% of the vehicles (safest way to set yellow lengths). This allows cities to literally create thousands of split second violations by deliberately mis-engineering their lights with yellows too short for the actual traffic speeds. These split second violations by 0.3 or 0.9 seconds into the red would not occur at all if the lights were timed for maximum safety and minimum violations using the correct length yellows for the ACTUAL approach speeds of traffic.

WHY would FDOT allow cities to deliberately create thousands of violations with mis-engineered traffic lights using too-short yellows? Well, the state gets $83 of each $158 ticket without paying any part of the high $4,000 to $5,000 per month per camera costs – a total of $51 million in revenue last year. Can you connect the one important DOT that created this predatory revenue stream? (pun intended)

Red light cameras are a for-profit business partnership between the state, a camera vendor and a city willing to mis-engineer their traffic lights for maximum ticket revenue instead of for maximum safety. They are a scam that must end.